Kuri and Twylight's Big Adventures
by LemurKat
Summary: Two small Pokemon - one big world. So many adventures to have!


Some years ago now (three to be precise) I began an online Role-playing game on Yahoogroups called "Lake Eerie".  It is currently one of the biggest and longest running and most active Rping games on Yahoogroups but I have long since given it up.  Except that LE really gets into your blood and it is not easy to just let go…  Therefore, instead of rejoining I took up where I had left off with my two kits (Kuri, born to Saffire one of the longest running PCs in the game) and Twylight (the first third gen char born) and will include in the "cast" a host of other chars that have since gone inactive.  Thus a warning – some of the events referred to in this story are taken from the game and as such are not fully explained – Kuri's kidnap by houndour, for example.  However, if you overlook that it is still an enjoyable and quite cute wee tale.

Kuri, Twylight and Saffire are © LemurKat ; Rage is © Khaydarin.  Used with permission (I hope).

* * *

Several months had passed since the traumatic experiences of the volcano and Saffire's pack was making their recovery. The silver Ninetails was no longer the beauty he had once been, his body scarred and battered from the battles and the bald patch on his chest that would never heal, but he was happy. He loved his mate, Rage, and could not help but admire her now that she was a sleek and beautiful Suicune. After the volcano incident, Autumn and Iris had left the mated couple to their own devices, claiming that they needed time to heal. Little Kuri had grown in leaps and bounds and her twin tails had split into four.   
  
Her story took up once more when she was hunting rattatta. It was a cold morning, with frost hanging in the air, but the cold did not effect her - like her parents, Kuri was an ice/water type.  
  
Pounce! She sprang through the air, paws pressing down hard into the ground at the entrance to the rattatta's winter burrow. She could hear it scrabbling beneath the ground, aware of her presence. She was hungry, yes, but she hunted in play remembering well her father's words 'do not hunt what you cannot eat'. She would eat it, if she could catch it.  
  
The rattatta made a bolt out its back entrance, the presence of which she had noted earlier. In two quick hops she was upon it, flicking it into the air before it could bite her. Wild rattatta were generally weak, but it never hurt to be prepared. She had just caught it in her teeth, prepared to shake its last when her grip faltered and she dropped it.  
  
Desperate for freedom, the rattata made a break for it and she took up the pursuit. A blur of black and purple flashed past and her prey vanished beneath the paws of the strangest pokemon she had ever seen.  
  
The little Vulpix skidded to a halt, staring at the thief. He was smaller then her, looking more like prey then predator, with the long ears and horn of a nidoran.  
  
"Hey!" She exclaimed, "that was mine!"  
  
The strange Pokemon merely grinned at her, the rattatta struggling feebly beneath his foot (which she noted sported long claws unlike any nidoran she had ever seen). "Finder's keepers," he said. "Mine now."  
  
"It was my kill," Kuri exclaimed. "I almost had it." She stuck her nose in the air. How dare this imputent little misfit have the audacity to steal her food from beneath her feet! No matter that she was not that hungry anyway - no matter that she could catch another in a moment. It had been hers and he had taken it. "I want it back." She stuck her pert little chin out, unused to being denied. Her father could deny her nothing and her rough life at the paws of the Speaker to Spirits had almost faded in her memory.  
  
"Tough." The creature grinned, flashing wickedly sharp fangs. "You want it, you'll have to take it off me."  
  
"I'm not going to fight with you, thief," she stated, flitting her tails prettily. "I refuse to stoop to the low levels of you burrow dwellers."  
  
"Buwwow dwellers?" The Nidoran-creature smirked. "That's pwetty wipe coming from someone who lives in a hole in the gwound too."  
  
"A den is not a hole in the ground," Kuri declared, although even to her the distinction was weak. She was aware she was losing this argument and falling very close to just attacking. What would her father think? Who cared? This insolent wretch was stealing her food!  
  
She struck fast, surprising him and bowling him to the ground before he had a chance to react. Forepaws pressed tightly down on his chest, she stared him in his eyes. They were large and blue-fading-to-red, he was little past kithood himself. He glared back at her, still insolent despite his position.   
  
"So whose kill was it again?" She asked sweetly, bearing her teeth in his face and pushing her claws against the fur of his belly. "Why don't you just scamper back to where you came from, prey?"  
  
The tiny jewel on his forehead, half obscured by his horn and fur, suddenly flared with violet light and a beam shot out, striking her in the forehead. Pain erupted through her head and the little Vulpix tumbled backwards to lie in the grass, twitching weakly.  
  
"You were saying?" He said.  
  
And Kuri was frightened. Her head throbbed and her vision was slightly blurry and he was smaller then her and looked like prey... "What are you?" She whispered, dragging herself into a half-crouch.  
  
"I," he replied, "am a Nyuwan. I didn't huwt you, did I?" His forehead creased with his concern and he bounced over to her, nudging her with his muzzle.   
  
She blinked back up at him. "Yes, yes you did," she whimpered.   
  
"Oh," he said, "sowwy. Look if it's that impowtant to you, you can have the wattata, okay?"  
  
Kuri was perplexed by his sudden change of attitude but decided she liked this better. "What's a Nyuran?" She asked.  
  
This question appeared to puzzle him. "Why, it's me," he said. His head flicked from side to side as he looked for the rattata, but having only been stunned by the initial pounce, it had taken the opportunity upon itself to crawl away. "But you can call me Twylight if you like." He smiled and his eyes twinkled. "Looks like neither of us is gonna get the wattata."  
  
Kuri smiled at the irony. "We can catch another one," she said, "my father taught me how to hunt with him, like a pack so if you want to, we can hunt something bigger like..." She faltered. She had been going to say "nidoran" but since this Twylight fellow looked a bit like a nidoran, maybe he wouldn't be wanting to eat them. "Like a pikachu or something."  
  
"Nah," he said, shaking his ears, "those 'lectwic mousies make me stomach tingle. Did ya papa teach you how to fish?"   
  
She shook her head. "No, not fish." Her vision was returning to normal now.  
  
"Well then," he said, "how about I teach ya then? Magikawp are fulla bones but there's nothing sweeter then goldeen. 'Cept maybe oranges," he added, "so what's your name then, foxy?"  
  
"Kuri," she replied.  
  
"Kuwi," he said, and she winced as his speech impediment distorted it, "it'sa pwetty name. Come on Kuwi, let's go fishing."  
  
Half bemused and half curious, Kuri padded after the eager Nyuran, wondering all the while. What was a Nyuran? Where were his parents? And more to the point, what would her father think?

*

The two young Pokemon paused by the little babbling brooke, which giggled merrily over the stones. Kuri was starting to become a little anxious - her over-protective father would be beginning to worry, especially if she wasn't in the usual hunting grounds about the den. Her papa worried too much, she decided, as Twylight made his way down to the bank, sliding down the slope to the tiny beach below. Kuri followed a little less eagerly - the slope was muddy and she slipped, tumbling down almost into the water.  
  
Twylight held back his laugh. "You'll scare the fishies," was all he said.  
  
Kuri regained her footing and began to clean her front paws, before realisiing the pure futility of such an action - they would just get muddy again, after all. Twylight was staring into the water, poised right on the brink, leaning over slightly.  
  
It was almost too tempting, but Kuri resisted pushing him in. He was too serious and she very much doubted he would see the humour in it.  
  
"Can you see any?" She asked instead.  
  
"Shhhh," he hissed, "You're scawe them."  
  
"Sorry," she muttered, sitting back on her haunches.  
  
He stood staring at the water for a long, long time and Kuri was starting to get really bored. This wasn't like hunting rattatta - this was deadly dull. She yawned. Her parents would have noticed her missing now and would probably be starting to worry. She should probably leave now. Just as she opened her mouth to say as much, Twylight moved. He lowered his head and a beam shot out and a moment later a fish bobbed, belly-up to the surface. Tossing her a triumphant smile, he scooped it out and dumped it on the beach.  
  
"Patience," he said, "is vewy important."

The Goldeen flopped about on the riverbank, gaping pathetically. Twylight cut short its death throes with a swift bite to the back of the head, then slashed it open with his long claws.  
  
"Well, what are you waiting for?" He asked, meeting Kuri's puzzled gaze, "it's a big wun, I can't eat it all myself."  
  
Kuri took a bite, the scales splintering painfully in her throat. She choked them down, not wanting to show her weakness to the Nyuran. He ate with relish and ease, sitting back on his haunches to polish his whiskers a moment later.  
  
He emitted a small burp which he covered with a clawed forepaw. "Sowwy," he said. "'tis good, yes?"  
  
Kuri, having choked on the scales, found the meat to be rather tasty, if a little bit weak compared to her usual red-meat diet. "Yes," she agreed, not wanting to appear ungrateful, but wishing for her rattata snack instead. "Maybe I should get back to my pack now." Mid-morning was starting to approach and her father was bound to be worrying.  
  
"What's the huwwy?" Twylight asked, leaping up the bank with fluid ease. "We've got the whole day befowe us."  
  
"My papa will worry," Kuri said. "He worries a lot about me. SO does Mama, but Papa is worse. Don't your parents worry?"  
  
"My pawents undewstand that I gotta have some independence or I'll just end up being a kit fowever," he replied. "And they don't want that any more then I do."  
  
Kuri wondered if she were being insulted. Maybe her father was over-protective, but it was only because he loved her. "I'm not gonna be a kit forever," she stated, scrambling up the bank after him and putting both nose and tails in the air.  
  
Much to her annoyance, Twylight merely shrugged, "whatever you say," he said.  
  
Ice type she might be, but he was making her seethe beneath the skin. Somehow his nonchalent agreement made things worse. "I'm not," she snapped.  
  
He shook his head grimly and hopped up river. He moved like a Nidoran, she noted, bouncing forward on those long hindlegs of his. With a deep, reluctant sigh, she followed him, jogging along easily on her somewhat longer legs.  
  
After a time the babbling of brook turned to a rather more wooshy sound and a waterfall came into view. The water, caught in the mid morning light, sparkled with the colours of the rainbow and glided smoothly over the rocks. It was rather pretty, by all accounts.   
  
"Ooh," Twylight exclaimed, "plums!"  
  
She followed his gaze, and saw the plum tree, precariously balanced beside the waterfall, dark fruit hanging from its boughs. To reach it one had to scramble up a rather steep slope, although it was littered with ferns and rocks. Kuri grinned at him.  
  
"Race you to the top," she suggested, unsure of what was so attractive about the fruit but dying to prove herself in one way or another. How beating him to the top of the waterfall would prove anything, she wasn't sure, but she wa fairly sure she could beat him. Her legs were longer, after all.

Twylight darted up the slope, leaping from foothold to foothold with ease. Kuri, despite her longer legs, struggled to keep up and stumbled several times on the slick soil, almost skidding back to the ground. Her lungs pounded with the exertion, but he still reached the top first with a final leap that took him into the branches of the tree, where he nestled into a crotch of branches and grinned back at her. "Bet ya Kuwi," he said.  
  
Kuri had not expected him to climb the tree with such ease - he was a Nidoran, after all. More-or-less. She fell panting beneath the tree, feeling very foolish and more then a little embarrassed. To Twylight's credit, he didn't gloat at all.   
  
"Nice view up here," he commented, and Kuri had to admit, yes, it was a nice view. The river was a shimmering ribbon trailing to the lake from which the sunlight glinted off its crystalline surface. He clambered further up the tree and deftly sliced a plum free with one claw. It fell to the ground with a *splat*, narrowly missing Kuri.  
  
"Hey!" She exclaimed, jumping to her feet.   
  
"Oops," he chuckled. "Sowwy. Next time I'll twy harder." He clambered around the tree, slashing free more of the purple fruit. Another plum squelched to the ground and another... One struck a rock and exploded, spraying juice everywhere, including into Kuri's fur.  
  
"Yick!" She yelped, almost sliding down the slope in her disgruntlement. "You wait until you come down from there."  
  
Twylight merely grinned at her. He had a charmingly crooked smile. "Why not come up and catch me?" He queried, peering down at her.  
  
Kuri of course, was not very skillful at climbing trees and could do little more then lower her ears at him and glare. Well, she supposed she could attack him, but that seemed rather unsporting. He had caught breakfast to make up for losing her her rattatta, after all. Even if it had not been entirely to her taste.  
  
"Well," he said, "are you gonna eat them or just stare at them?"  
  
"You eat these?" She asked, sniffing at the squished purple fruit. "It doesn't look like meat to me."  
  
"It's not," he said, "it's fwuit and it's sweet an' tasty. You mean you've never eaten fwuit before?"  
  
"Pure carnivore, that's me," she said, risking a tentative lick of the fruit. It tasted... different... very sweet. Well, what could it hurt? She tossed it in the air as though it were a rattata, and caught it in her mouth, teeth closing around it. Her fangs slid through the flesh in a manner that was vaguely unpleasant and unsettling, given she was not used to it, then crunched on a hard centre. The juice flowed down her throat like very sweet blood.  
  
She was surprised to find it was not unpleasant.  
  
Twylight landed neatly beside her, feet first. He had a grace that seemed unusual in a Nidoran and made her wonder about what else he was. His feather-like plumes of a tail seemed to indicate he was of mixed blood. Like her, only weirder. He speared a plum on one claw and nibbled it around the edges, purple juice trickling down his chin. Kuri crunched down on the seed and swallowed it too, not knowing what else to do - and hey, it was like bone and she ate bone all the time, didn't she?  
  
Twylight flicked his own seed out across the waterfall and watched it tumble down, disappearing into the deluge.  
  
For the next little while they gorged themselves on fresh fruit, until Kuri started to feel distinctly ill. Her body was not used to this sort of sweet food and she had to go and lie down in the shade of the tree whilst her stomach settled. Twylight crouched beside her grooming himself and licking his long blades of claws.

The two kits stretched out side by side beside the waterfall, Kuri's belly over-comfortably filled. She rested her head onher paws and tried not to think about it too much.  
  
"Does it ever bother you," Twylight said with frank straight-forwardness, "that your father over-pwotects you just a bit?"  
  
"My father loves me," said the Vulpix, "and doesn't want anything bad to happen to me."  
  
"I'd like to think my father loves me too," the Nyuran pointed out, "only he sends me off on my own to explowe."  
  
Kuri didn't think that sounded like a very good thing to do, although she had to confess, she sometimes wished her father was a little less stifling. She didn't say this aloud though, since she didn't really want to admit to her beloved father's failings.  
  
"That doesn't sound too good," she said, "what if something bad happened to you?"  
  
"If I don't go out and learn stuff on my own I'll be a kit fowever," he said. "An' MY father don't want me to be a kit fowever."  
  
"I'm not gonna be a kit forever," Kuri growled, her hackles rising. "My father just worries about me, we've had problems in our Pack."  
  
"Weally?"  
  
"Yes, really, but I don't see why I should tell you all about myself since I don't really even know you."  
  
Twylight's ears sagged a little. "Tell ya what," he said, "if ya tell me something about yourself, I'll tell ya something about meself and that way we'll be even."  
  
Kuri pondered this, rolling over onto her side and stretching her hindlegs. She had to admit she was rather curious about this weird Pokemon. "Okay," she said, so ev'rytime one of us says something 'bout ourselves the other has to say something to."  
  
"Yup - that way we'll each know each other about as much. You can start," he pointed out, "since it was my idea."  
  
The Vulpix could see the logic in this (being a kit and all, it made more sense). "When I was only a tiny kit I was kidnapped by Houndour."  
  
Twylight snorted at that in a most rude fashion, "your father's so pewfect that he'd let you get stolen away?"  
  
Kuri didn't like his attitude. "My father - and mother, did ev'rything they could but there were lots of Houndour and they were injured. 'Sides, it's your turn."  
  
"My father and mother weally hated each other at fiwst." He said.  
  
"That's not about you silly, that's about your parents."  
  
His eyes narrowed, "my pawents made me who I am." He said. "Just because I wasn't stolen as a baby doesn't mean nothing. Stop stalling."  
  
"Very well then," she muttered, "I was taken into the care of a blind Houndoom that claimed to speak to the spirits."  
  
"You're kidding!" Twylight explained, "and Mr Pewfect father let this happen?"  
  
"My father came after me and was captured, tortured and starved."  
  
"My father wouldn't be captured," Twylight stated, "he's too smart and bwave for that. When he was young he spied on Keel'alla." He added the last proudly.  
  
"Who?" Kuri asked, rather spoiling the intended effect.  
  
"Keel'alla - the nastiest and evilest Pokemon ever to twy and take over the lake. My father pwetended to be a seer."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I've told you something about me - it's your tuwn now."  
  
Kuri sighed and rolled her eyes. "My father fought the blind houndoom and almost died in the process. Mother was badly injured too and she only survived because she evolved."  
  
"A blind houndoom doesn't sound too tough," he scoffed, "my father fought and won against my mother and he was only a Nidoran at the time."  
  
"Oh, that sounds healthy," Kuri said sarcastically. "What's your mother then? A pikachu?"  
  
"No," Twylight muttered, "she's a nyuwa and I'll just have you know that most nidowan won't go up against even a pikachu. My father is bwave and stwong."  
  
"Whatever," she shrugged, feigning disinterest. And he had the gall to call her Pack dysfunctional? When his mother and father had fought and hated one another. She had to confess though, she was rather enjoying his company, despite his hurtful words. She had little enough chance to associate with Pokemon her own age and his frankness intrigued her.

Kuri faltered in the middle of what she had been saying as something caught her eye. A black nidoran seemed to be moving amongst the long grass below but there was something wrong with it. It was grazing, yes, but was it her imagination or could she see flowers through it? She was about to nudge Twylight into noticing it too, when suddenly things took a turn for the rather more bizarre.  
  
The Nidoran suddenly grew, enlarging into the form of a big, blac Houndoom, slightly transparent. He was nosing at something in the grass and Kuri recognised him immediately.  
  
"Sable Moonchaser," she whispered, so quietly that Twylight glanced at her, "huh?"  
  
Sable Moonchaser looked up directly at her, his red eyes bright and burning and he made a beckoning gesture with his head. _Come on_ he seemed to be instructing her.  
  
And half sliding down the slope, she came, with such speed that it befuddled the Nyuran. Kuri was not frightened of the ghostly Houndoom - had he not kept her company through her long exile under the paw of the Speaker to Spirits? Ironically, perhaps, it was he that had kept her sane.  
  
As she neared him, he looked at her his mouth a great doggish grin, then he winked and vanished, fading into that grin. She skidded to a halt and saw what he had been investigating.  Half obscured by tangled weeds lay a Nidoran skull.  
  
It was old, yellowed by the sun and the bone flaky and damaged by the elements. There was no scent left on it. She scampered another few feet and found another one, half buried in the dirt, a great crack radiating from one point of impact. It was very small, a kit perhaps?  
  
And then Twylight was beside her. "Kuwi," he asked, "what is going on?" And then he saw the skulls and a shudder passed through him. "It's like some kind of massacwe," he whispered, pressing his flank close to hers.  
  
She could not understand his fear - the Nidoran were dead and had been for many seasons, what matter was a few dead nidos to them? What did he have to be fearful of, was he not a hunter like herself?  
  
"What's wrong?" She asked.  
  
He shrugged, "something here feels ... tainted," he whispered, and Kuri could feel it now too. What had once been a bright and beautiful day now seemed to take on a darker cast. "And ... familiar."  
  
"Have you ever been here before?" She asked.  
  
He shook his head. "I've never been upwiver," he replied, "not before, I used to hunt awound where the wiver meets the lake. It was only today I felt the desiwe to explowe fuwther. It's kinda cweepy," he added.  
  
"I don't think so," Kuri said, "it's just a predator thing - maybe some sort of predator came through here and killed them. Ate the meat but left the skulls behind." She shrugged, "come on, let's start heading back." She could not deny the slight unease she felt and the desire to be away from there.  
  
"I don't think it was a pwedator," Twylight said, staring transfixed at something else. Half buried in a ramble bush was another Nidoran, this one a complete skeleton, caught up in the bush as though it had been dragged there. It had been caught there so long the branches had grown twisted and gnarled around and through it, making it part of the tree. He hopped away, and Kuri, whilst wanting nothing more then to be away from this once beautiful glade, was unable to do anything but follow.  
  
"Look, it's a buwwow," he said and indeed it was, partway up a slight slope and obscured by another bramble bush it looked old and dry. "Let's have a look inside," he suggested, although his spines were on end and his ears were flat against his skull.  
  
"I have a better idea," said Kuri, "let's not." But it was too late, he had already dug some of the dirt free and entered the darkness.  
  
Rolling her eyes, the Vulpix trailed in behind him.  
  
The first thing that struck her was the frigid cold. It was colder here then she had ever felt before. Then again, she had grown up in a volcano. Being an ice-type, the cold did not so much bother her as make her wary. "Twilight," she hissed, "are you sure this is wise?"  
  
"No," he whispered back, but continued on regardless.  
  
The tunnel opened up after a short while into a small chamber. The air was so frigid and cold that Kuri could see her breath frosting in the air. It was dark, almost too dark to see, but for the feeble rays of light that entered through the tunnel.  
  
Twylight staggered back so suddenly he sent her sprawling. "What is it?" She gasped. The floor was icy cold. She clambered to her feet.  
  
Ears flattened and eyes wide with fear, Twylight stared at her. "The Dark Nidoran!" He gasped.

  
The two Pokemon kits fell over each other in their haste to be free of the burrow. Kuri had no idea what had frightened her new friend so, but she became caught up in his fear and together they tumbled into the sunlight.  
  
"What," Kuri started, dragging herself to her feet and shaking dirt from her fur, "was that about?" She stared at Twylight, an accusing look on his face.  
  
"The Dark Nidowan," he whimpered, shaking dirt from his ears, "I saw it."  
  
"And what may I ask, is the Dark Nidoran?"  
  
He shuddered, "it is a Nidowan black as pitch with eyes of gleaming wed that comes for naughty kits."  
  
"So like you then." She sniggered. "Did your precious father tell you about it, filling your head with all sorts of superstitious nonsense?"  
  
"My father told me it was a fwaud, a fake and that the only Dark Nidowan was hisself but that thing in there was stawing at me with wed eyes and it was black..." He faltered. In the daylight, out of the icy cold burrow, things started to look and feel very different. Kuri could see the doubt growing in him - the doubt and embarrassment too.  
  
"I should be heading home," she said, "father will be worried and I'm sure you have other places to be anyhow. It's been nice playing with you." She paused, "will I ever see you again?"  
  
But Twylight was not listening - ears back in resolution and spines risen, he was entering the burrow once more.  
  
"Twylight you stupid fool!" Kuri hurried after him, dancing around the narrow entrance, "can't you seen some things are better left alone?"  
  
"I must know," came his indistinct reply, "go home if you're afwaid, foxy."  
  
"Afraid!" She scoffed, indignant, "I'm not afraid. I've faced more dangers then you've had pidgey dinners." She followed him into the gloom once more.  
  
The burrow was stifflingly claustrophobic. Kuri was used to a more open den, not this place where she got dirt in her fur. She sneezed as some found its way up her nose. The air was still cold, still dark and smelt peculiar - like the frost. The two of them entered the main chamber and sat side by side. It was still dark of course but her eyes adjusted to the gloom slowly and surely.  
  
There was another Pokemon staring at her, motionless. She padded forward, curious despite the edge of fear.  
  
"Who are you?" Twylight asked, his voice loud against the silence. The stranger made no answer, not even a single movement.  
  
It was a Nidoran, she could see that now but a more sorry, bedraggled specimen she had never seen. He was lying on his side on the floor in a position both rigid and uncomfortable, his fur sticking out erratically. His head rested on his forepaws but his legs were twisted at a weird angle. Both ears hung in ragged tatters about his head.   
  
This was the Dark Nidoran of Nidoran folklore? She scoffed at the idea. This creature was pathetic and obviously sick if not worse. And so cold! She padded forward further, not in the least afraid. Why, it wsa no bigger then Twylight.  
  
It made no movement as she neared it, and she paused,hesitant. Twylight pushed past her.  
  
"Who are you?" He asked, nose out tentatively to touch it. His nose met its and he jumped back as though stung, directly into Kuri. Both of them went tumbling into another pile of blue and black.  
  
She unravelled herself first, to find Twylight merely lay there, eyes wide. "So cold," he whimpered, "so cold and the darkness."  
  
"Twylight?" She questioned, nudging him, "you haven't gone tharn have you?" She had hunted Nidorans before and whilst when cornered most would fight (and their poisonous horns made her reluctant to hunt them often), others would just crouch there, eyes white, paralysed but for the quivering of their flanks. This was "going tharn" (_Taken from "Watership Down" one of the best books _ever__). She sighed and moved forward, towards the strange and motionless Nidoran. The air was colder around it, and when she brushed against its flank it was icy cold. She sighed and shook her head.  
  
"You're alright Twylight," she said, "it's just dead. Looks like the winter was hard on it."  
  
Twylight still made no move and she padded towards him, worried now. He was shivering uncontrollably and his eyes were showing most of the whites - alarming given the low light levels that should have dilated his pupils. She nudged him gently but he did not respond. Aside from the quivering he could be as frozen as the black Nidoran before them.  
  
"Snap out of it Twy!" She urged, worried now, and fastened her teeth about his ruff, careful not to break the skin. She had dragged nidoran in the past but not usually with much care. A dead nidoran cared little if you bit through its ruff.  
  
He was heavy and awkward to drag, his entire body convulsing in the most awkward manner imaginable. Dead prey was much easier. But she knew she had to get him out into the sunlight - if she left him here he would go beyond tharn and into madness. He was still gibbering to himself, words drawling together in an almost unintellible manner. Death seemed a frequent occurer however. What had happened when he touched it? It was just a dead and frozen husk. Wasn't it?  
  
But how was it still frozen - in Spring?  
  
Her shoulders ached and her teeth seemed to be trying to drag themselves from her gums, but an eternity later she dumped Twylight in the sunlight. The clouds had come over in their absence, blocking the sun's rays and casting a grey shadow upon the land. Perhaps it was an omen. She stood over Twylight, licking his face until coherancy returned to his eyes.  
  
Shivering still he drew himself to his feet and stared at her. For all his Nyura blood, he was still a Nidoran and he should not have come here. A shudder passed through him and he took one final glance at her. "I must go now," he whispered, turned and bolted downriver.  
  
Kuri watched him go, shaking her head. All that fuss over one dead Nidoran? She sighed. Try as hard as one might, one could never understand the mentalities of the prey species. She turned away and headed for home.  
  
Her father would be _furious_.

*

Her father WAS furious. So furious and worried in fact that as Kuri hurried home, she almost ran into him, tracking her scent. He sat down before her, his blue eyes flaring with concern and more then a little anger.  
  
"Where have you been?" He snapped by way of greeting.  
  
"Just out, hunting," she replied, his words putting her on defensive.   
  
Saffire stood up and walked away from her, without a word, just expecting her to follow him. She resisted defying him by running away again and fall in by his side.  
  
"I'm very disappointed in you," he said after a long silence. "Whatever possessed you to leave our territory?"  
  
Kuri had no reply, but in this mood she did not want to speak of her new friend to her father. "I'm sorry." She didn't feel sorry, but it was easier to just say it then argue the point.  
  
Her father was not done with his lectures yet, however. "You shouldn't wander off alone," he said, "anything could happen to you. What if the Houndour kidnap you again."  
  
"I'm not a baby anymore," she said, "and if you'll remember rightly, last time I was taken from right under the Pack's noses. Besides, the Speaker and her followers have gone now, after you killed her and all."  
  
He nuzzled her, sighing deeply. "It would break my heart if something happened to you," he said, the anger gone from his voice and replaced with a resigned tone. "Your mother was beside herself with worry."  
  
They were approaching the den now and Kuri's mother jumped down from the roof of the den, where she had been sunbathing. Rage was beautiful and sleek and looked not-in-the-least concerned with her daughter's absense.  
  
"Kuri my dear," she said, "good hunting this morning?"  
  
"Not too bad," she said, still uncomfortably full of plums.  
  
"You've been hunting Nidoran," she remarked. "That's pretty bold for someone of your size. Any luck?"  
  
Saffire narrowed his eyes at her and stepped closer, scenting her fur. "You're too young to hunt Nidoran," he scolded, "they can be horribly dangerous and unpredictable." He faltered. "My dear, you reek of nyura, did one attack you? Are you hurt?"  
  
"No father," she explained, her voice shaking a little. Of course he could smell Twylight in her fur. "We only talked, is all."  
  
"You've been talking with nyura?" He shuddered, "then why does your fur reek of it and why? Nyura are horribly unpredictable creatures."  
  
"Not a nyura," she explained tiredly, resting her head on her paws. "His name was Twylight and he's a hybrid like me."  
  
"A nidoran and nyura hybrid? That's just unnatural. I hope he didn't behave inappropriately."  
  
Kuri chuckled, but it was without humour, "he caught me a fish," she said, "as an apology for accidentally stealing my kill. We talked is all."  
  
"Good," Saffire stated, nuzzling her reassuringly. "I don't want you associating with that sort of rabble. Something that is part predator and part prey is hardly a dependable companion. I trust you won't be seeing him again?"  
  
Kuri hadn't really thought she would, but there was something in her father's tone that made her want to rebel. "And what if I do?" She asked.  
  
"It's hardly appropriate for a young lady of your breeding to be associating with unnatural hybrids," he stated, sounding very pompous.  
  
"Dear, leave her alone," Rage commented, "remember it was not all that long ago that you were associating with pikachu and nidoran yourself. I myself would count at least one pikachu as a friend."  
  
Saffire knew when he was beaten. "I'm just not comfortable with you seeing him," he said.   
  
"Are you forbidding me to have friends?" Kuri stated.  
  
"No! Youngsters need friendship, I just wish you would chose more appropriate company to keep, is all."  
  
"So I can only have friends if you chose them for me? Thanks father." She stalked off to sulk in the shadow of the den. How dare he try and control her like that. How dare Twylight be right! She lay down, head on her paws and mind filled with storm clouds, but she could still hear her parents talking.  
  
"She's right you know," her mother was saying, "it would be good for her to have friends her own age."  
  
Saffire made a low rumbling in his throat which meant he was displeased. "But a nyura-nidoran hybrid? Someone like that is bound to be unpredictable and dangerous. Who knows what trouble he could lead her into?"  
  
"She's our daughter," Rage said, "but she's not a kitling anymore. Soon she'll grow up and leave the territory in search of her own mate. She needs to be ready for that. You can't protect her forever."  
  
"I can try." Saffire replied and Kuri heard him get to his feet and shake himself, "even if I have to find her a friend myself. Someone who will look after her when I'm not around."  
  
Rage sighed deeply and Kuri heard her father leave. She closed her eyes, wishing Twylight had not been right about her father. He was over-protecting her. Didn't she have the right to find her own friends? Why should her father do it for her? She was just contemplating sneaking away when her mother padded over to her.  
  
"I'm sorry," the Suicune said, "you know how much your father loves you and how much he worries about you." She sat down before her, blue eyes filled with compassion, and lifted one paw. Kuri crawled under it, resting her head on her mother's chest and fighting back the tears. "Maybe it would be best if you don't run off alone, at least for a little while."  
  
"But mother," Kuri ventured, "when will he let me go and be myself? I don't want to be a kitling forever."  
  
"One day," Rage answered her, "one day he'll realise. I'll talk to him but for an ice-type he can be terribly hot-headed. And until he comes around, maybe you should just stay around the den."  
  
Kuri sighed deeply and rested her head against her mother's soft fur. Maybe sometimes being a kit wasn't so bad.


End file.
